And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness in America

In And Housing for All, founder of the National Homelessness Law Center Maria Foscarinis reveals the human impact of the housing crisis by sharing personal stories and examining the flawed policies that have perpetuated it. As millions face rising housing costs and encampments spread nationwide, she uncovers why past efforts have failed and what must change to achieve lasting solutions.

Drawing from over 35 years of national advocacy, Foscarinis shares compelling stories of individuals and families impacted by homelessness, highlighting their resilience and growing leadership. Blending personal narratives with policy analysis, she reveals how deliberate decisions have fueled the crisis and how public narratives have sustained it.

And Housing for All is essential reading for social justice advocates, policymakers, lawyers, and anyone invested in solving one of America’s most pressing challenges.

Maria Foscarinis founded the National Homelessness Law Center (formerly known as the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty) in 1985 to mount a campaign for a federal response to the crisis which was just beginning to explode across the country. The Law Center won legal victories including the only major federal legislation addressing homelessness–now known and the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act–, upholding education rights for homeless children, converting vacant properties to housing, and combatting the criminalization of homelessness, while also laying the groundwork for the recognition of housing as a human right. She has been named a Human Rights Hero by the American Bar Association, and is a recipient of the Katharine and George Alexander Law Prize from Santa Clara University School of Law, the John Macy Award from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the Public Interest Law Award from the Public Interest Foundation at Columbia Law School, and a Rockefeller Foundation Practitioner Residency in Bellagio, Italy. Foscarinis has been regularly quoted in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, Bloomberg, CNN, BBC, CCTV, and Al-Jazeera, among many others, and has contributed opinion pieces to influential publications including USA Today, the Christian Science Monitor, the Huffington Post, and The Hill. She teaches a seminar on Homelessness Law and Policy at Columbia Law School.

Foscarinis will be in conversation with Pam Fessler. Fessler was an editor and correspondent at NPR News for more than 28 years. As a correspondent on the National Desk, she covered voting issues, poverty, and philanthropy. While at NPR, Fessler did countless stories on everything from the debate over restrictive state voter laws to Russian interference and the spread of misinformation. Fessler also covered homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reported on efforts by non-profit groups, the government, and others to reduce poverty and how those programs worked. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award. Her first book, Carville’s Cure: Leprosy, Stigma, and the Fight for Justice, was published in 2020. It was named a Notable Book of the Year by the American Library Association. She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.